Public sector employee complaints about the refusal of the Bank of Ireland to cash pay cheques will be referred to the Joint Industrial Council for State industrial employees. A meeting has been scheduled for Monday April 23rd. It will be chaired by a senior industrial relations officer of the Labour Relations Commission, a Department of Finance spokesman said yesterday.

At a meeting in the Department of Finance yesterday "the group of unions put forward a proposal for consideration" and the meeting was arranged, the Department spokesman said. He declined to elaborate on the proposal.

SIPTU official Mr Mike Jennings said the proposal was an exploratory one put forward in the context of the negotiations. He declined to disclose what was proposed because the matters were still under negotiation. Mr Jennings said that several hundred industrial public sector employees were affected by the bank's decision.